Forum talk:What makes a form of government good?
Essay This seems like an essay to me. Might want to consider moving it. -- Ferguson 19:07, 29 September 2006 (UTC) :Maybe... I was really hoping to get some other opinions, though... --whosawhatsis? 19:16, 29 September 2006 (UTC) ::The way I see them, essays are great ways to get other opinions, it's those opinions would be discussions in the discussion page (which I understand is still being thought of as the 'talk' section on Wikipedia...not sure I go along with that...). Or maybe we could start including the 'discussion' part at the bottm of the essay. I dunno. I just see this enormous amount of text and think, 'With a little formatting, this could be a great essay.' No reason to simply relegate it to a simple forum discussion. -- Ferguson 19:30, 29 September 2006 (UTC) :::I think if someone posts an Essay, they're presenting their work for the community to read and consider, but not necessarily edit or change. Different Essays can be written by people with a different opinion, and they can be linked together in a See also section. A Soapbox entry means that people are welcome to comment on and post different perspectives, but we should leave each signed statement alone and not make edits to what others have to say. An article is open for editing. Would that work? Chadlupkes 19:53, 29 September 2006 (UTC) ::::I think your soapbox definition is solid, but I had hoped that the essays would, in fact, be modified, within certain parameters. Meaning, the text should always be refined, modified, made better, but the thesis needs to remain the same. The general point of view must be left intact. It's my dream that the essays can fill the gaps between the major parties and mainstream points of view on issues. Essays are like the Senate, say, while the Campaigns are like the House of Representatives. Instead of trying to sift through a long forum, readers can just read a comprehensive, well-written and -organized essay that sums up the point of view of people who may be left out of mainstream politics. So, yes, the essays should be here for readers to consider, but also here for us to add to and refine. ::::It's working out over at the Government Transparency, where deadplanet wrote a potential addition to the essay, which we are now considering. That's how I'd like to see it work. As far as this specific Soapbox, it's really up to who to decide whether he wants this to be an unmodifiable forum starter or a dynamic essay. I would just encourage him to make it an essay. -- Ferguson 20:50, 29 September 2006 (UTC) :::::I really intended it to be a conversation starter for a more open discussion including other ideas on what differentiates a "good" and "bad" forms of government. In fact, I was originally going to use it to start a section of Forum:What is the best form of government?. Can you think of a title that would be appropriate for this as a 1POV essay? Since the type of discussion I was hoping for has already begun, I'm inclined to leave it the way it is, but I'm open to the idea of turning it into an essay. Perhaps there would be some way to do both, as with Forum:Open Government and Forum:Transparent Government? --whosawhatsis? 22:15, 29 September 2006 (UTC) ::::::I think it'd be great if we could develop forums, soapboxes, into essays. Boil the discussion down into an easy-to-read piece of writing so that people can get an overview of what the discussion was. I don't believe 1POV articles necessarily need to endorse a strong POV. Maybe we should see where the discussion goes, and if some good stuff comes out of it, we can develop an essay out of it in a separate essay article. -- Ferguson 23:04, 29 September 2006 (UTC) :::::::Sounds like a plan. --whosawhatsis? 23:05, 29 September 2006 (UTC)